Leo Elster
PAST ''*'WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS'' A lot can be known about Leo's past. His past is the whole reason for the Synths in the first place. Leo was raised by his mother and father. But his mum became severly mentally ill. When his father couldn't take care of Leo himself (so he could take care of Beatrice (his wife)); he built someone who could. The first Synth with consciousness he built was Mia about fourteen years ago, who was to treat him like his mother and be kind and to love him. Then he built Niska, Fred and Max. His father would tire of them once he completed them and wouldn't really care about them afterwards. None of them seemed to mind it since they all had each other. Then one day his mum snuck past the nurses in the home taking care of her and she grabbed him and threw him into the car and drove into a lake. Beatrice died. And he died in the river from being under too long, the Synths found him, but it was too late. He was pronounced brain dead and was on life support at age 13. According to records he passed away a couple weeks later after being released into his father's care. But he wouldn't let his son die, so for months, he worked on trying to put Synth parts into his brain. And he was finally a success. Leo had become part human, part Synth. This technology was unheard of and believed to be years away. He was able to prove all of this by having his memories digitized and showing them to Mattie. Leo's father was famous for his work of building Synths. Dr. George Millican and David Elster had a falling over the idea of conscious Synths, Millican believing it to be a danger. Leo has also the ability to be charged somehow if he faints he can be electrocuted. After the procedure to bring him back to life, him and the four others felt closer together. Though it appears Elster lost his mind, because he built a Synth with brown eyes and he gave her a specific look to her. He made her identical to his wife. When he introduced her to Leo, he had a break down and rejected her. Leo has appeared to block out some of these memories even though he is not supposed to be able to like a Synth. Personality Leo doesn't seem to have much of a happy persona with all of the drama going on, but he seems to crack a joke here and there, for example when he tells Mattie that he isn't weird, and he has gone to Charm School since their first encounter and he calls Fred the "boring brother." Leo always seems to crack a smile when there is a peaceful moment with his brothers and sisters. Leo is always a bit paranoid, but he always seems to have a plan. Leo dislikes humans, believing that they don't care and how just because they are human, doesn't mean they have humanity in them. He never trusted humans before Mattie which developed a bond between them. It is unclear his age due to the fact he never went to school, so we don't know if he has a beard because he can't shave and he doesn't have friends who care, or he wants to grow it out to show his older self. Leo often appears worried and fears more for the safety of others rather than himself. When he knows Max can fight a couple of thugs, he didn't want them to know what he was, so he told him to run. He doesn't take to kindess very well. For example, when Mattie gives him a big plate of food, he gives no thanks and tells her that she doesn't know him. Family and Friends Leo is very protective of his family. Leo, Niska, Max, Fred and Mia all consider themselves a family. The other four were built to protect and befriend Leo, but it truly did become a friendship and a family. Leo's father commited suicide the same day Leo rejected his Synth Mum Look Alike. After the accident where he died, he was happy to be part Synth because it made him feel more connected with the others, since he didn't feel connected with his father. They stayed together on the run and in hiding for so many years, that they would stand at nothing to be with each other again. Leo doesn't have hope for humanity besides the four Synths he knows. He believes that humans are cruel beings, while when he critizes them, Max is with him counteracting what he says and explains Leo's anger as his loss of hope for humanity. Mia was the Synth he was closest with and saw her as more than as a Caretaker, but as his mother. So he was screaming her name mainly when she was taken. Whe taken, Mia was motified by a couple Russian brothers that Leo and Max had a runin with which exposed them and put them on Hobb's radar for more strange Synths besides Fred. Niska was sold to use as a prostitute in which is where Leo found her and they had to have him walk out of the room as if he just had sex with her. Then one day she kills a man who wanted her to act scared and pretend to be a child. When Niska said no, the man held her throat,she fought back in self defense and ulimatly ended up harming him ." Fred was picking fruit off of trees for a company and when Hobb approached him, Fred tried to run but was shot with a taser. Max had stayed with Leo at the time of the kidnapping. They spent multiple weeks before the start of the show looking for them. What truly shows his saddness for the secret desire of a normal life is when he takes a shower at the Hawkins' home and sees all of their toothbrushes and bath toys, knowing he never had any of thatm and he begins to cry, being the only one in the group who can. The family may appear to have grown by the end of the series, but the Synths and Leo are still their own family and the Hawkins are really just their friends that helped them. Their "Human Friends" I suppose. Leo never seemed to ever have friends in his life besides the Synths. But their family never grew except when they discovered another Conscious Synth, but who then is perceived to go live her own life and not have to deal with her past. Max even says that when they all get back together again, they need to take a picture together to cherish. Relationships '''Mia/Anita- They have a mother-son relationship. Though she has never been harsh on him, but she seems to be the one he is closest with. She was the first Synth he met and then came along the four others. Mia basically raised him and it is believed that she is the one that pulled him out of the car (although the others were there). The first scene in the show makes it seem that they are together and even Mattie thought so when he became really upset when he couldn't bring Mia out of Anita. Mia was the first one he wanted to rescue, only showing a picture of her rather than a picture of Niska, because it is most likely he kept the picture of Mia in his wallet or bag rather than Niska's. Max- Max has the most trouble hiding his consciousness although he does appear very robotic, he is the most loving. Leo is very protective of Max and same of Max towards Leo. Max sacrifices his life so Leo can escape Hobb. Leo and Max call each other brothers. Max is the one who is most keen on not giving up. When Leo gets mad at Max, Max stays calm and decides not to bother him. When Leo is in danger, Max is always there to take care of him. Max is considered a little brother to Leo. Fred-For most of season one Fred is being held against his will, so not much is known about their relationship. Just that Fred loves his family and he even loves David Elster (Leo's father) as a father even though he felt abandoned by him. Leo has described Fred as the "boring brother" being the one who watched over everyone when they played games and had fun. Niska- Leo always saw Niska as the dark sister and he finds her but doesn't end up getting her out at first, which leads her to continue her forced prostitution. Which leads her to killing someone in self defense. Leo doesn't want Niska around at first and wants her to lay low, so he sends her to Dr. Millican and that is where more is learned about Dr. Elster and more about how the Synths feel. Leo is the one Niska always goes to. Dr. Elster- his father is deceased by the beginning of the series. Him and his father never really were close since his father had to take care of Leo's mother. Though he cared enough to want to give his son love and friends and to build a system to save his life after he died. His father's mind took a toll after his wife's death, which led him to build a clone of his wife, which Leo rejected and led his father to suicide. Dr. George Millican- Leo meets Millican and discovers that he worked with his father and they had a falling out and Millican learns that Leo had survived the accident. Matilda "Mattie" Hawkins-''' Mattie doesn't like Anita as soon as they get her. And when she starts to become suspicous of her behanvior, she decides to try and illegally hack her system. When she sets up the program and gets the code of Anita, she finds it odd. Then all of a sudden, Mia is brought out and grabs Mattie and starts screaming for help and saying "I'm Here!" Mattie being frightened, she unplugs the program and Mia is gone. Mattie decides to post Anita's program on ''Hack Head ''and Max and Leo see it and decide to get in contact. She tells him that they would meet in a public place and that she had a beard and was 6'4" and had a rock shirt on. She sits near them and hear them talking and tells them that they need to be careful when they talk to people online. He barely looks at her until he realizes that she is the one from online, the account that posted the code. They sit across from each other and he claims Anita's real name is Mia and how she was his Synth before, but Mattie doesn't believe it because she was sold supposedly brand new and doesn't believe his claim of Mia to be special and when she tries to leave the booth he grabs her. She says she needs to go to the bathroom, he tells her to leave something of hers and she leaves a bag and walks away. After a woman yells at them why they have her a bag. She conned them and she got away. Later on when Laura has Anita evaluated, they learn she is actually fourteen years old and gets in contact with Leo and calls him weird, he says he is not, she says he is, and says "I've been to charm school since then incident at the resteraunt" later on he texts her "ok I'm a little weird" She decides to bring Anita to him. When her parents try to send Anita back, Mattie steals the car and drives to their meeting place, they try to bring Mia out, but fail and Leo gets mad and tells her to get "it" out of there. Later on, Mattie goes looking for Leo and only finds Max and they go looking for Leo, whom they find unconscious and Mattie watches Max electrocuting Leo as if charging him. Leo finally reveals his identity after having Mattie see all this. Revealing that he is the son of the famous David Elster and his story, which she has trouble believing until he shows her his digital memories. Later on, after Max and Leo go on the run, Leo continues to look for Fred, then they look for Max after he jumps into the water and go to Mattie's house to help repair him and she helps them as much as she can. Later on she makes Leo food and he tells her off saying "Just because you know my memories doesn't mean you know me." She asks, "Why did you show it to me then?" He brings up the fact that he just needed to show someone. She becomes more protective of him than her, because he knows she can live a normal life and he can't. She can be described as his first friend. But obviously where would a show be without a romance, so little romantic things appear here and there and if there is a romance between them, it might show more in season/series 2. '''Hawkins Family (other than Mattie)- Leo doesn't really like having humans to rely on with his little hope in humanity. But when he decides to go to them, he slowly starts to trust them, until it is learned that Joe hawkins had called the cops on them the night before. Then when they learn that Niska has killed the family want them gone, Sophie becoming confused wants them to stay. When they finally do leave, they are later taken into authorities and the family try to get them back by threatening Hobb and decide to meet realizing that there is a type of control on Fred which forces them to leave him behind. The family and the Synths go their seperate ways, but it seems they will be in touch. Karen- Karen is a synth made to replace Leo's mother when he was young, but Leo hated her and he thought she had been destroyed. But when she sneaks into the Hawkins house, she drags him out, even though he knew she was not really his mother, he walked with her, Niska (who Karen had tried to kill earlier) warns him to stay away, before he can agree or disagree, authorities break in and his hand is seperated from Karen's. When in the facility, Karen visits him in a white room and he tells her that she is one of them, and how they can all be together, but even though he tells her all of this, and he compares her to all of the other conscious synths and talks about how they can all be together, she even smiles and it appears that if she could cry, she would. But she rejects him and leaves him screaming as she leaves. She believes conscious synths to be dangerous and wants to die along with them since she is programmed to not be able to kill herself. Leo calls her after their escape and tells her to meet them at a church and at first the other Synths are afraid until he explains that he called her there. When they go inside their minds, she prevents them from being able to come out of it and is killing all of them. But Mia talks her out of it. When offered the chance to go with them, she declines and walks away with Pete and it seems she is moving on with her life.